Installing the OS

Download the current ISO image from ​http://lubuntu.net/. Unless you are ready to rebuild various drivers I would recommend using the 32 bit image even if your computer is capable of 64 bit operation.

Create the CDROM as a bootable image of the ISO.

Test drive the CD by booting from it (do not install yet).

Reboot the computer to your original OS.

If you are going to install Lubuntu as a dual boot with Windows on a single hard disk then you should compact the drive using the appropriate Windows program. Note the amount of free space on the hard drive. The Lubuntu installation can get by with a 20 GByte partition.

Reboot the computer from the Lubuntu CD and select install. The CD has installation software which will re-partition your hard drive if this is a single hard drive installation.

It will also create a new boot sector with a grub2 loader. The installation of the boot sector program should find you current Windows OS and make it selectable when your boot the computer. The new Lubuntu will be the default, but you can change that after the installation is complete. Refer to the Lubuntu / Ubuntu web sites for help on the OS installation.

Build environment

Lubuntu does not install the GNU compilation tools needed to build the fldigi family of applications.

Open a command line terminal and enter the following sequence of commands

The first command will install the GNU c/c++ compiler-linker. The second
will install a very nice programmer's editor named "Geany." You can use
Geany to examine various source code files with the code syntax highlighted
in color. The last two will insure that required libraries needed
by fltk are available. These libraries are essential for fldigi and the
other flxxx programs User Interface to employ clear crisp fonts.

Build dependencies

Install the build dependencies for the version of fldigi in the Lubuntu
repositories:

sudo apt-get build-dep fldigi

The above command will install the packages that are needed to build the
repository version of fldigi and all of the other fl_xxx applications you
can download from the w1hkj.com web site. Those packages
will also enable you to build a full-featured binary of the latest version.

However. If your distribution already has a reasonably up to date fldigi (i.e., any 3.x version), then you can just perform the above command without needing to go and check things in Synaptic first.

Preparing the home directory to build the fldigi family of applications.

I recommend maintaining a set of directories directly in your home directory.

cd
mkdir tarballs
mkdir app-src

The tarballs directory will be used to contain all of the compressed source
code files (tarballs).

The app-src directory will be used to contain the decompressed source code
directories.

The current version of fldigi is 3.21.70. You may need to change the version
number in the future.

The source tarball contains all the files needed to compile fldigi.

cd ../app-src
tar xzf ../tarballs/fldigi-3.21.70.tar.gz

You should now have a source directory for fldigi-3.21.670 in your app-src
directory.

Compiling fldigi

At this point you will have a source tree extracted from the tarball containing a configure script. The following command will prepare the source for compilation:

cd ~/app-src/fldigi-3.21.70
./configure

The configure command generates the Makefiles that make uses to run the
compiler and linker. configure has various options to fine-tune the build;
you can see a list by running:

./configure --help

For more information about configure, required library versions, etc., refer
to the INSTALL file contained in the source tree.

Some often-used configure switches for fldigi are listed below:

--enable-optimizations=type

Enables some compiler flags that can increase performance on modern x86 CPUs.
If you have a recent gcc, use --enable-optimizations=native. Otherwise, use
the highest SSE version supported by your CPU (you can check by running
cat /proc/cpuinfo). SSE2 should give a nice speedup on all recent processors.

Check the configuration summary printed by configure to ensure that fldigi
will be built with the required features. If a feature that you want is
disabled, you are probably just missing a library development package that
can be found in your distribution's repositories.

When you are happy with the build configuration run this command to compile the
binaries:

make

Installing the binaries

When the compilation is finished, run this command to install fldigi.

sudo make install

This command will install the fldigi and flarq binaries, manual pages, icons and
desktop launchers. If you install to the default /usr/local (or other
appropriate directory on your system), you should see icons for fldigi and flarq
in your Lubuntu "Internet" menu.

Remember too: To add yourself to the dialout group Serial Port Setup
Or, you won't get any rig or PTT control to work!

Uninstalling

Do not remove the source tree directory. You will be able to remove all
files installed by make install with:

Note: If you only have a single fldigi or single flrig etc source directory you can simplify moving to the source code top level directory. If you are currently in the app-src directory

pwd
cd flrig*

will put you in the correct directory. The "pwd" command simply echos the current directory to your terminal.

Repeat the above for flmsg, flwrap and fllog.

All of the applications are then available on your system "Internet" menu.

Desktop keyboard behavior

Lubuntu uses the F11 key as a quick method to change an application dialog
to full screen mode. That's OK, but it prevents fldigi from using all of
the function keys for macros. The fix is easy.

cd
cd .config/openbox
ls

You should see a file named something like "lubuntu-rc.xml". This is the
file that the desktop manager reads and uses to configure it's operation.
Open the file using the previously installed programmer's editor, Geany.

geany lubuntu-rc.xml (or the named xml file in your directory)

Search for the string "F11". It should read <keybind key="F11">
Change that to read <keybind key="A-F11"> which will then allow you to use
the alternate-F11 combination for the full screen short cut. The desktop
manager will pass the F11 key on to the application (fldigi).

Pulse Audio Volume Control

The Ubuntu derived distributions do not seem to install the Pulse Audio Volume Control by default. You will need the volume control to elegantly complete the interface between the audio stream and fldigi. Pulse Audio Volume Control remembers the mixer settings and the audio codec associated with an application; very important for fldigi.

sudo apt-get install pavucontrol

Making things spiffy :>)

System Hamradio Menu

So ... everything is up and running but you want to streamline the desktop and launching the applications. The first to do is to add a new system menu "Hamradio"

sudo apt-get install extra-xdg-menus

It takes a few seconds to download and install and you now have a new system menu "Hamradio" fully populated by the fl_xxx apps that you have installed.

Desktop Launch Icons

Adding a launch icon to the desktop is sublimely simple. Open that new Hamradio menu and right click on the application you want to put on the desktop. Select "Add to desktop" ... done!

Panel launch icons

Adding one of the fl_xxx application launchers to the panel bar at the bottom of the screen is equally simple.

right click on the area just to the right of the "Swallow" button.

select "Add / remove panel items"

select the upper-most "Application Launch Bar"

click on the "Edit" button

A new dialog opens ... expand the "Hamradio" item in the right hand scroll box

Select the desired application, ie: Fldigi

Press "Add" ... the icon is added to the left hand box and also appears on the system panel at the bottom of the screen.

Move the location of items on the panel by clicking on the item to be moved and then pressing the "Up" or "Down" button as appropriate.